last december 10 at bercy stadium in paris, radiohead took part in the 50th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights. it was a concert put on by amnesty international and the body shop. it was the only radiohead performance in europe for 1998.

THOM: ‘OUR PROBLEMS ARE UTTERLY, UTTERLY IRRELEVANT’
Thom Yorke has revealed that performing at the Amnesty International gig is a way of “addressing my guilt, I guess”. In a recent interview, on UK’s Channel Four news he said: “Radiohead came out of the grunge culture of complaint. I think we’ve grown up and it’s dawned on us that our problems are utterly, utterly irrelevant and it’s offensive to have them rammed down your throat on MTV. Thom Yorke, who has always maintained a resolutely anti-rockstar attitude, also attacked the clichés of rock star celebrity: “What I find really offensive is the way our culture – once anyone has any degree of success – gets into the realms of Hello magazine ‘Have a look at our glamorous lifestyle that you should all be aspiring to – come look the homes of the rich ‘n’ famous and look at them doing charlie in the toilets. This is your future – this is success’.” He said he felt comfortable using his celebrity to help the cause of Amnesty International: “I don’t really use it for anything else.”

Thom Yorke, Beastie Boys’ Mike D and DJ Shadow join Handsome Boy Modeling School (ROLLING STONE)
The Handsome Boy Modeling School sounds like a front for a NAMBLA command center. Thankfully, it’s only an ultra-bizarre name for an experimental, hip-hop-skewed album created by Bay Area DJs producers Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Prince Paul. The album, due out next April on Tommy Boy, will feature an all-star cast of trendy urban technicians, MCs, indie and electronica bedfellows, and alt-giants, such as DJ Shadow, Beastie Boy Mike D, Alec Empire and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke — all too old and hairy in the wrong places to join an actual handsome boy modeling school. According to Nakamura, the “hip-hop textured” album will consist of between fifteen to twenty “things,” some of which will be skits, and the rest songs. “It’s not necessarily gonna be a big singles record or anything,” he says. “But it’s gonna be a cool record, I hope. I mean, so far the cuts we’ve done, I like ’em.” Right now, eleven tracks — all produced by Nakamura (Cornershop’s When I Was Born For the 7th Time) and Prince Paul (De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising) are in various stages of completion, with Mike D and Cibo Matto vocalist Miho Hatori collaborating on a song called “Metaphysical,” German underground legend Alec Empire and indie hip-hop trio Company Flow providing flows on “Megaton B-Boy,” and DJ Shadow and Mixmaster Mike doing justice to “Holy Calamity.” Other artists making contributions to the album include Brand Nubian’s Maxwell “Grand Puba” Dixon and Derrick “Sadat X” Murphy, Ice Cube’s cousin Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Chinese Canadian DJ Kid Koala, and unofficial Beastie Boy Money Mark. While the Modeling School project progresses, Nakamura, Prince Paul and Dust Brother Mike Simpson are juggling another more mainstream brainchild called the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. “Generally, we’ve been designating Mike as the ugly,” jokes Nakamura. Under the trio’s guidance, Cornershop and De La Soul have already recorded their contributions to the album, with future cameos expected from Beck and Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA. Altogether, Nakamura expects between eight to ten vocal tracks on the album, which is slated for a release on Dreamworks some time next fall. “It’s a little more up the middle than [the Handsome Boy Modeling School],” he says.